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Home Catalog Programs of Study Description of Courses Course Numbering

Course Numbering

All courses at American River College are comprised of a subject code (sometimes called a course prefix), course number, and course title. Some courses also have a course type identifier and/or a course specialty identifier. Here are descriptions of each component:

Subject Code/Course Prefix
The subject code is an alphabetical abbreviation for the subject area, between two and five characters long. For example, ENGL is for English, and ENGCW is for English - Creative Writing.
Course Number
Course numbers are standardized two-, three-, or four-digit numbers. For example, 90, 300, and 1000 are course numbers. Course numbers can tell you important information about the course:
  • Courses numbered 1 to 99 are developmental or basic skills courses. These courses are for credit but are not degree-applicable nor transferable to four-year institutions.
  • Courses numbered 100 to 299 are degree-applicable1 but are not transferable to four-year institutions.
  • Courses numbered 300 to 499 are transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements.
  • Courses numbered C1000 and above are transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements.
  • Courses numbered 1000 and above (without a "C" in front of the course number) are not degree-applicable nor transferable to four-year institutions.
Course Type Identifier
Courses that have a "C" in front of their course number belong to the Common Course Numbering (CCN) system. For example, COMM C1000 is a CCN course, while COMM 302 is a local course.
Course Specialty Identifier
Some courses have additional characters at the end of their course number, such as:
  • E = Embedded support
  • H = Honors course
  • L = Lab-only course
  • S = Support Course
  • 1 Courses numbered 200 to 299 that were taken between fall 1989 and spring 2003 are not degree-applicable.

Example Courses
Example Course Subject Code Course Number Course Type Identifier Course Specialty Identifier
ENGL C1000H ENGL = English 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number H = Honors
STAT C1000E STAT = Statistics 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number E = embedded support
COMM C1000 COMM = Communications 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number None
PSYC 330 PSYC = Psychology 330 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements None None
ENGWR 299 ENGWR = English Writing 299 = degree-applicable but not transferable to four-year institutions None None

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